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• seton
  seton

  noun

  a thread or the like inserted beneath the skin to provide drainage or to guide subsequent passage of a tube.
• Seton
  Seton

  noun

  Saint Elizabeth Ann (Bayley) Mother Seton, 1774–1821, U.S. educator, social-welfare reformer, and religious leader: first native-born American to be canonized (1975).

seton

¹ American  

[seet-n] / ˈsit n /

noun

Surgery.

1. a thread or the like inserted beneath the skin to provide drainage or to guide subsequent passage of a tube.

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Seton ² American  

[seet-n] / ˈsit n /

noun

1. Saint Elizabeth Ann (Bayley) Mother Seton, 1774–1821, U.S. educator, social-welfare reformer, and religious leader: first native-born American to be canonized (1975).

2. Ernest Thompson, 1860–1946, English writer and illustrator in the U.S.

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Seton British  

/ ˈsiːtən /

noun

1. Ernest Thompson. 1860–1946, US author and illustrator of animal books, born in England

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Etymology

Origin of seton

1350–1400; Middle English < Medieval Latin sētōn- (stem of sētō ), equivalent to sēt ( a ) seta + -ōn- noun suffix

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

seton Seton

A seton was worn in the side, and a little exercise on horseback taken three times every day, as strength would allow, during the whole progress.

From Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages Including a System of Vegetable Cookery by William A. (William Andrus) Alcott

Inflammation and considerable pain had evidently followed, and the dog had nearly torn the seton out.

From The Dog by William Youatt

Still more to be avoided are the methods by inserting a seton imbued with the virus and by hypodermic injection or other like procedures.

From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various

The animal was lean and tall, and had a moth-eaten mane, rough hoofs and loose shoes; a seton bobbed up and down on its breast.

From Over Strand and Field by Gustave Flaubert

He does not recommend the operation, as usually preferable to the seton, for which, the profession is indebted to Dr. Physick; but as an additional expedient, when other means fail.—Med.

From North American Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, July, 1826 by Franklin Bache

A spokesperson for the Ascension Seton hospitals said in a statement, “When a patient experiences a serious or life-threatening condition during pregnancy, our clinicians provide medically indicated treatment, including treatment for an ectopic pregnancy.”

From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026

Mr. Adubato is an associate editor of Compact, an adjunct professor of philosophy and religion at Seton Hall University, and a founding editor of the website Cracks in Postmodernity.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 19, 2026

Attorneys from the ACLU, Seton Hall University and the Center for Constitutional Rights are representing the families in Massachusetts federal district court.

From Salon ● Jan. 27, 2026

Ms. Zanzalari is an assistant professor of economics at Seton Hall University.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025

Seton made his estimate in 1929, and it is still widely quoted today.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann